Senate nixes bids to block EPA regs

The Senate today knocked down a series of attempts to kneecap the Obama administration’s climate policies, but the White House isn’t out of the woods yet.

Forty-six Senate Republicans and four Democrats voted to support a GOP amendment blocking the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. One Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, sided with the remainder of the Democrats and the White House in opposing the amendment to the small-business bill that needed 60 votes to pass.

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Senate Democratic leadership was able to siphon votes off that sweeping amendment by allowing votes on less aggressive alternatives. Those failed by more dramatic margins, but they gave some moderate Democrats the political cover they were seeking.

For the EPA’s defenders, the vote sends a strong signal that the Senate won’t endorse efforts to roll back the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. But the agency’s critics walk away with a powerful talking point: a majority of Senate lawmakers voted in some way to block the EPA, whether permanently or for a couple of years.

The chamber voted 50-50 to reject the sweeping rider from Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) that would undo EPA climate rules, and veto the agency’s scientific finding that climate change threatens public health and welfare.

Joining the 46 Republicans were Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

And after nearly a year of waiting, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) finally got a floor vote on his amendment to impose a two-year timeout on climate rules for stationary sources. His measure did only slightly better than the first two, failing 12-88.